Ball State University officials have spent some weeks considering whether scheduling classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday would be better for the school, and so far they haven't come up with much.
The administration now says more Friday classes would alleviate scheduling problems many students face by freeing up more time slots for classes each day.
This would reduce scheduling conflicts that prevent some students from graduating in four years, university officials said.
We're not buying it.
For the most part, students who can't meet all their graduation requirements have changed their major, had to retake classes or faced delays for personal reasons.
A good adviser can sit down with any student at the beginning of his college career and plan out which classes need to be taken when. University administrators have also said mandating Friday classes would be a more efficient use of buildings that have to be open anyway for offices.
Generally, reworking schedules tends to lead to inefficiency. If buildings and classrooms had to be open an extra day each week, that would logically use more energy.
Inefficiency would also be added because students and faculty would be required to drive to campus more times each week.
So the university needs to review that argument and get back to us. The only point administrators have made that stands up to logic concerns a commitment Ball State made to state legislators who decide to give the university money.
No one wants to devote tax dollars to a school that has buildings sitting empty one day of the week.
State funding helps the university do good things like update buildings and complete research initiatives, so it's understandable that Ball State wants to keep legislators happy.
What matters to us as students, though, are things like flexibility and convenience.
Rearranging our schedules to make us come to campus an extra day is not flexible or convenient.
It would take some pretty solid arguments to convince thousands of students to give up our Fridays, and the university hasn't produced those arguments yet.
Hey administrators, let us know if you come up with anything.
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